December 17, 2008

So I’ve gotten my Linux partition mostly back into working order. I had run out of hard disk space on my main partition. I tried to move files to the other partition. I must’ve done something terribly wrong, because things started failing. My mail server. My graphical user environment. And – oh no! – my VPN connection back to the IBM network. So I booted into Microsoft Windows to take care of some of the things they wanted for the project and to stick around on instant messaging just in case people started panicking, but let me tell you – it’s no fun developing without my tools.

Someday I’m going to learn to leave well enough alone. Or make my partitions large enough in the first place. Or look into properly resizing partitions.

Actually, nix that leaving well enough alone bit, because if I left well enough alone all the time, I’d never get anywhere. So maybe it’s just about being able to dig myself out of problems. I know how to deal with this: I can still work on Windows, and I’ll fix my system tomorrow morning when I get into the office.

I put “Sacha Chua, @sachac, livinganawesomelife.com” on my nametag because putting “Sacha Chua, @sachac, sachachua.com” felt a bit repetitive. It made a number of people smile, although some people asked me if I was no longer working with IBM. I told them I’d gotten an alternate domain name for my blog because it’s a bit easier to spell.

Kristan Uccello pointed me to the red glowsticks near the stage. I stuck one in my hair. That and my white blazer made me slightly easier to spot in the club, although it was still quite, quite packed.

Ian Irving told me about some Twitter data analysis and visualization he’d like to do. I promised to send him some information about Many Eyes, Wordle, and other visualizations.

I introduced Elena Yusunov to Patrick Dinnen, who regularly spends some time at the Center for Social Innovation. Elena is interested in social media for nonprofits, and would like to check CSI out. I should get Elena and Jane Zhang together for coffee next week. Also, I should check out those capoeira lessons.

I told James Walker about the Drupal hacking I’m having a lot of fun with at IBM. =) I also told him about hacklab.to after he mentioned that he occasionally drops by the Center for Social Innovation to hang out and print stuff.

Saleem Khan mentioned spampoetry.com.

Eva Amsen mentioned that she’d heard about me from Jen Dodd and Michael Nielsen, and that she was one of the organizers of SciBarCamp. I think she’d have a great conversation with Elena Yusunov about organizing events and about social media for nonprofits. She also explained the meaning of her Twitter ID, easternblot – it’s a biochemist secret handshake thing.

Sunir Shah asked me if I’d been to Toastmasters lately. I haven’t, but I might try exploring some of the downtown clubs with him after he’s done with house-hunting.

James Woods said he’d been to Mauritius, and he found it interesting to hear unexpected people fluently speak French. Gabriel Mansour mentioned that Sameer Vasta had been to Mauritius recently.

Gabriel Mansour told me about http://cupcakecamp.ca, which looks interesting. I promised to e-mail the details to Greg Frank, who is interested in cooking but doesn’t bake much.

David Crow’s 15-month-old daughter is getting quite good at sign language, and tends to string signs together like sentences.

Adam Schwabe turned out to be the guy doing my usability test this week. We talked about the challenge of finding out what other people are doing when it comes to Web 2.0 at IBM. I promised to send him info about our upcoming Web 2.0 for Business community call, and to connect him with a few people. (I actually talked shop at a party; meep!)

Brent Ashley’s on his third ultra-mobile PC. He handed down the rest to his two daughters. Reminds me of the way my dad goes through Swiss knives…

Kieran Huggins should definitely look into getting one or two external flashes. They’re portable and they really make a difference in pictures. For photography awesomeness, buy glass (lenses) and light (flashes). And practice, of course, which he obligingly let me do.

Mike Miner runs into all sorts of interesting stories as a producer. He wants to go to Africa or South America.

Pete Forde’s planning a dinner party. I’m looking forward to it!

Bryan Watson can dance swing! That was lots of fun. I may have accidentally stepped on someone’s foot while finding this out, though.

I promised to e-mail David Crow and Jay Goldman about volunteering to help out with events so that I can learn how to organize external events.

I caught up with or met a whole bunch of other interesting people. =) (Hooray! I’ve been in Canada long enough to have old friends!)

… I feel like a gossip columnist with all these names in my blog post. Odd!